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Attention Pet Owners: You Need These 3 Apps

Mashable and Purina recently co-hosted #TailsandRails, a pet-friendly hackathon at New York's Soho Grand Hotel. We brought together coders and animal lovers who want to build a better life for their furry friends.

Seven teams of hackers competed for pet app glory, and their pet projects were evaluated by:

Read on to learn about the three winning projects, which were developed in eight hours. Check out the recap of the event — with lots of cute pictures — here.

Best Idea: LocalSitter

Separation anxiety definitely exists between pets and their owners. So Cody Reinold, a student at Fairfield University who has been designing and developing web-based applications and experiences since he was 12 years old, built LocalSitter. The app connects owners to their pets when they can't be together, whether the animal is with a friend, a pet-sitter or at daycare. "From short messages to live photos, LocalSitter keeps you in touch with your pet and gives you peace of mind while you're away," says Reinold, who made his hackathon debut at Tails and Rails.

LocalSitter is a PHP5 and HTML5 web-based application, so it can run on any web-enabled device, from smartphones (any platform) to tablets to computers. "No matter where you are, this cross-compatibility makes it easy for both pet owners and sitters to keep in sync with their furry counterparts," says Reinold.

We're all connected all the time, shouldn't our pets be, too?

Best Implementation: Ones&Twos

Yes, this app is referring to those ones and twos. The Ones&Twos iPhone app is a tool for puppy training, and a great way to collect data on when and where your pup is pooping, peeing, eating, playing and napping. Tap to log each of these events in real time and get a sense of your pup's body and cycles (with graphs!). Plus, every time you log an event, the app will send you a training tip corresponding to the type of event you've just logged.

"The data we collect will allow you to gain insights like 'your dog is 75% more likely to have an accident within 30 minutes after play time' or 'your pup loves to go pee at 6 a.m., 4 p.m and 8 p.m. so take him out at those times to avoid accidents!" says Becky Carella, who coded the app with her Barkbox colleague Cris Kim and whose dog, Frida Lovelace was the inspiration for the app.

Tap over to the #Winning page to see your pups stats, achievements and activity levels, such as how many days or hours since their last accident and how many minutes they played this week. You’ll also be able to see your pups activity compare to other Ones&Twos users. To make the app even more useful and accurate, you can share it with your dog walker so you never miss a one or two.

Best Overall: KittyBalls

Bored at work? KittyBalls lets you play with cats in shelters all over the world who are waiting to be adopted. "It's the best of Internet cats, but now with 100% more interactivity (and the warm fuzzy feeling of knowing you're helping get pets adopted!)," says the team. And really, is there any better way to take a break from work?

KittyBalls uses an existing webcam that is attached to a computer that has an app connected to a KittyBalls server. This app allows a KittyBall visitor to control the KittyBall and also broadcasts a video stream to the KittyBalls site.

If you'd rather play with your own kitty, KittyBalls Personal lets you connect and play with your kitty at home when you're chained to your desk. (And yes, PuppyBalls are coming soon!)

Kitty Balls is the brainchild of Philip Reichenberger, Rodrigo Sanchez and Justin Isaf. They have real jobs, but they enjoy spending their free time "creating unfortunately named but awesomely fun apps at hackathons that hopefully make the world just that much more lovable." We're cool with that.

Which of these products would you use for your pet? Tell us in the comments.

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